Reverse Culture Shock

It happens every time after I return from a mission trip, and it doesn't matter if it's an overseas trip or if we stayed state-side. There's a culture shock that hits me a few days later right at home when I least expect it.

This morning while worshiping with the body of UBC, I was standing in the choir loft singing my heart out, when I looked around and felt my heart drop. I was enjoying a fellowship so sweet, and yet I had just spent a week with people who would fall into one of the following two categories:

1) They desperately long for a family to worship with each week like that
2) They have no idea of the joy that they are missing

Why do we often treat our blessing of this gathering so casually, when there are millions of people in the world who are longing to share in it? Specifically, why are we meeting without passion when 98.4 percent of New England needs that fellowship?

As I was working through those thoughts, we started singing O the Blood, and then we sang In Christ Alone. I started having faces flash through my mind of those we met and talked with this week. So many people who could not sing the words of those songs honestly, and in many cases probably don't even have a head knowledge of what they mean. I thought specifically of Sham, who when asked how he viewed God, said, "He is gracious." We sang these words:

O what love, no greater love. Grace, how can it be? That in my sin, yes, even then, He shed His blood for me.

THAT is what grace really means! My heart longs for him to know that, to experience that grace in his life, and to fall on his face and worship his Prophet, his Priest, his King! Our own hearts need to be continually gripped by that truth. Our hearts need to deal with that reverse culture shock every day - because this world is not our home. We are living in a foreign culture every single day, and we should live as radically as that makes us feel.

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part VII

It's a late night tonight as I write this, but it has been a full and fruitful day. I'm typing this as I watch the Kentucky basketball game with Ryan, so if there are typos, frequent lapses of focus are the reason. :-)

As I mentioned yesterday, we spent the entirety of the day with Russell and Cynthia again today. They have been so gracious in giving of their time to our team, and we have definitely bonded as friends and in Christian fellowship over the last two days. Russell drove us this morning to a community called New Britton, which is a few minutes southwest of downtown Hartford. There, we toured the campus of Central Connecticut State University. The students there were on Spring Break, so there weren't many people to talk to, but we did find a few student employees working the information desk that were able to give insight on the campus. This is a university founded by members of the Jewish community, and many Jewish students attend here. Naturally, then, there are several different Jewish organizations on the campus.

Central Connecticut State University

The girls at the desk here told us that while there is great outflow from the university to the community through internships, jobs, community service, etc., there is not much of a presence of the community itself on the campus. We asked some leading questions to determine the reason for that, specifically related to the presence of a church or a Christian organization, but they indicated that there is not a great need for that because the university itself provides so many resources to students. Pray that the Lord would raise someone up to penetrate this campus with the Gospel!

After spending some time in conversation with Russell and then prayer walking a bit of the campus, we drove to Storrs, Connecticut, home of the UConn Huskies. The small rural community of Storrs is where Russell and Cynthia live, and they were gracious to invite us into their home for lunch. It was so nice to have simple homemade sandwiches after eating out for a full week!

CCSU Campus (the building on the right is meant
to resemble a lighthouse)

Following our lunch there, we drove to another community called Willimantic, Connecticut. This lower-to-middle-class town is the home of Eastern Connecticut State University (we've covered all but the north and west this week!). Again, the students here were on Spring Break, so we only took time to drive through the campus in order to make some general observations about the surroundings. As was the case yesterday, many of the areas we saw today looked much like Fayetteville, and all three campuses were laid out and had a feel very much similar to the University of Arkansas. If only we could get the temperatures to look the same right about now! Really, though, we've been blessed the last two days with sunny skies, and while still very cool, it's been much more pleasant than it could have been.

The whole day was building our excitement to see the University of Connecticut, and especially for Ryan and me because of the fame of its basketball programs. :-) Before our hosts would take us on campus, though, they forced us to have some of the agriculture department's dairy bar ice cream, which was some of the best I've had. Forced could perhaps be the wrong word here!

Best ice cream in Connecticut!

Russell and Cynthia showed us around the Alumni Center, which is where their church plant, The Bridge, meets every Sunday night. Because this is largely a commuter school, they have found that more students are in town on Sunday night than would be Sunday morning, though they do host a Bible study on Sunday mornings in the Student Union. They have been meeting for three years, and have grown to having 30 attenders on a consistent basis. Russell and Cynthia will be leaving this church at the end of the semester, though, so pray that God would raise up another leader to carry on the work here.

We spent some time seeking out conversations and prayer walking on the campus before heading back to Russell and Cynthia's house, and debriefed with them for a while before dinner. They had invited a few of their church members to join us, and five of them were able to come. We enjoyed so much getting to share with them about how God is leading us as a church, and to hear their hearts about this church and community as well.

A graphic representation of the religious diversity
of the UConn Campus

University of Connecticut

Ryan and I were particularly blessed to share in a few extra moments tonight with Russell and Cynthia, as they gave encouragement to us as a couple in the joys and struggles of a ministry marriage. We were blessed to pray together with them for God's guidance in both couples' lives in the near future. Please pray with us to that end as well.

We'll meet as a team of six tomorrow morning for brunch and a final debrief before leaving Brant and the Northeast as we return home. It's been a great week, and we're eager to see how God works through this team and through UBC as we proceed forward with church planting. Thanks for reading along with us this week! I doubt that I will post anything tomorrow night, as we'll be arriving back in Fayetteville late, but keep watching the blog for future updates on the life of this project and in the life of the Martins!

PS - The Kentucky Wildcats are now in the Elite Eight . . . makes for a very happy ride home tomorrow!

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part VI

Hartford, Connecticut

Today felt like one of our best days yet here in New England. We woke up to enough snow to make the ground pretty, but nothing was on the roads by the time we left at 10:30 - Praise God! With a good deal of rest and renewed energy for our final days here, we set off for Hartford, Connecticut. New Haven was about two hours from Providence, and Hartford is only about 45 minutes from New Haven. The short drives have allowed good opportunity to view the areas surrounding each of these cities, and have provided insights into what a church planting team would encounter while living here (aka - lots of traffic).

Upon arriving in Hartford, we met up with Russell and his wife, Cynthia. They are former IMB missionaries who are now leading a small campus church at UConn. They spent the rest of the day with us, driving us into the downtown area and guiding us on a tour of the close surrounding areas. We found that the downtown area of Hartford differs from Providence and New Haven in that it has more of an upscale look and feel, and it doesn't seem as compact as the others did. You'll find parks and "green space" in the Hartford downtown, whereas the other two cities had much more of an industrial feel. That, combined with suburban areas being closer to downtown here than at our previous stops, made Hartford feel more like Fayetteville to the group.

As we drove through town, we quickly drove through St. Joseph's College (a Catholic campus), and also spent some time at the University of Hartford. The U of H feels very much like the U of A, though on a bit of a smaller scale. Our team paired off in groups of two to prayerwalk the campus, and to seek opportunities for conversation. God graciously provided each team member with at least one of those opportunities, for which we are all very grateful.

The University of Hartford Campus

Personally, Ryan and I were quickly able to meet Sham, a Muslim student from Pakistan. He was reading a pamphlet about the Muslim faith when we met him, which provided an instant opportunity to have a spiritual conversation with him. He shared his beliefs with us openly, and then listened attentively as Ryan shared the Gospel with him as well. Sham is very intelligent and quite knowledgable about his beliefs, but he has no knowledge of the One True God. Please pray that this Truth would be revealed to him! He allowed us to pray for him before we left, and gave Ryan his phone number, so pray also that they will be able to have continued dialogue, and that he will be prompted to think about the things that were shared with him this afternoon.

From that campus, we went to Trinity College, which is a few miles away. This was founded as an Episcopalian college, although the congregational church at the time of its founding forced the college to establish that it would not impose its Episcopalian beliefs upon the students. This holds true today, but the college architecture is full of Catholic-looking symbols. The chapel itself is very beautiful on the outside, but the inside is almost Gothic in appearance and is far from a welcoming place of worship. The students here were on Spring Break, but Brant and Jennifer were able to meet a sophomore rowing student (Chris), who recently became a believer and is desperate for a place to find discipleship and growth in his walk with the Lord. He and Brant also exchanged information, so pray that a relationship can be developed there, and that Chris would find a place to worship with other believers.

Trinity College Chapel

Trinity College Campus

Beautiful architecture at Trinity College

The whole group then met with Joe Fisher, who is in the process of planting a church in the downtown area. He is currently leading a group of about 20, with plans for a more formal initial gathering on Easter Sunday. He shared more valuable information about the community as a whole, and about what church planting would look like in Hartford. From he and all others we have talked to, we have heard that the traditional southern church-planting model just would not work here. Planting a church takes relationships, time, involvement in the community, time, support from your sending church, and time. Pray that this is something that we will be able to clearly communicate to the body of UBC upon our return, as we seek how the process would look for us.

The site of Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon:
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

Tomorrow, we will spend another day, our final full day in the Northeast, with Russell and Cynthia, who have been so gracious to give up their time to host us here in Hartford. We will spend time in some outlying cities, as well as visiting the UConn campus and meeting some of the members of their church, The Bridge.

Thank you for your continued prayers!

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part V

New England Water (seen through the fog)!

We are now a team of six! Our group is experiencing some new life now that Brant has arrived to join us for the rest of the week. We're grateful to have another guy to round out the team and that he was able to make it safely, considering some of the roads in the Northeast are gathering snow, sleet, etc. On that note, please pray that the conditions won't affect our travel in the morning. As of right now, we should be fine to make it to Hartford, but there could be more significant accumulation overnight. We're allowing ourselves a few extra hours to rest and get ready in the morning, so hopefully a later time of departure will help us as well.

We had our earliest morning yet today, as we met for breakfast with Tim, a Connecticut church planting strategist and pastor. He was able to give us some significant on-paper information about each of our Connecticut areas that will be useful as we look to the right neighborhood in which to plant a church. He spent some time driving us around the city, showing us the University of New Haven and the surrounding suburban areas.

The entrance to Yale

After that, Lauren & Kailey went to survey the Yale campus area, and the rest of us went to the public library in hopes of striking up conversation with locals. God was gracious to provide each one of us with beneficial dialogues with residents of the New Haven community, and we were able to learn much about the spiritual climate of the city.

For lunch, we met with Andy, who is the Director of Collegiate Ministries for the New England Baptist Convention (quite the title!). He shared more specifically about ministering to campuses, which is something we have really focused on as we look to plant another "University Baptist Church," or at least a similar model by another name perhaps.

Yale University Campus

As the day transpired, I was connected through various Facebook avenues with Sarah, who lives in a New Haven suburb with her husband and two children. As it turns out, her in-laws are actually members of UBC, her mom led in Bible Study Fellowship the same I did, and her family is very close to the Brills, who I work with at Lightbearers. Sarah and I were blessed to speak on the phone for quite a while this afternoon while the rest of the team debriefed, and she was able to give a perspective that we hadn't found yet. Again, God has been so gracious to provide timely appointments with specific people who will all be used to direct us toward that place that He has already set before us. What a privilege for us to be a part of that!

Southern Connecticut State University

As another day ends, I continue to ask you to pray for our team. We have now finished our time in two of the three cities, and already we have noticed extreme differences between them. Pray that God will use those differences to make it clear to the Body of UBC where He is preparing for us to be a part of His work. Begin praying, too, for the team that will travel to Boulder, Colorado, and Palo Alto, California, in May, as they survey an additional two cities. As we talk to more and more people, the need is revealing itself as more and more significant. So many we have met openly declare that they have no view of God at all, and that breaks my heart. These people need to have knowledge of a Savior - and not just knowledge - but they need to have a true, lived-out relationship with Him. This task matters!!!

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part IV

We've reached the halfway point in our trip, and it's starting to show. We had another great day of meetings and ministry, but we're tired. Our day started out early, though, so it's warranted. 

We left Providence early this morning and made good time to New Haven. I was expecting one of two things of New Haven, and neither of them was true. First, I thought it would be much more of a suburban town than a big-city kind of place. Well, it's a big-city kind of place. My second option was that it would be a lot like Providence, but that's not really the case either. Both of these cities are similar in size to Fayetteville in population, but they look so different. They're very business-looking, right off of the interstate with lots of high-rise buildings. There's definitely that "inner-city" downtown feel in New Haven, really more so than in Providence.

We arrived in town early for our lunch meeting, so we spent a bit of time driving around the downtown area. It's an atmosphere that is so very unfamiliar to me, and it's hard to know how to react to it. The Yale campus is right in the middle of downtown, but it stands out significantly amongst the high-rise businesses and condos. The buildings are old, classical and full of character. It's really a beautiful little community to itself right in the middle of a big city area. 

We met for lunch with Cat, who is a Young Life coordinator here in New Haven. She is a Yale graduate and has been a resident of the area for the last four years, so she was able to give us a lot of helpful insight into the community as a whole. She expressed that the university and community don't get along well at all, outside of the fact that Yale is the largest employer in the city. Many of the students never leave campus, as our own team members experienced when asking students for simple directions within the city. She also explained the huge diversity that is experienced in the town, as you can find mansions and projects within a couple of blocks of each other. Another big thing she shared with us is that this community does not at all value community. In fact, she said it's a concept completely foreign to many of them. She said that the parents of some of her kids might be neighbors but don't know each other at all. There is a significant need to teach and encourage community living in this area.

We had another hour in between meetings, so we spread out and surveyed the downtown area as much as we could. As was explained in our meeting later, the people here will rarely make eye contact with you on the street, and will hardly ever say hello . . . even if you say hello to them. We all experienced that in our brief time there. We were able to make a couple of contacts during that time, including one woman (a lifetime New Haven resident) who just lost her job and requested prayer from our team. 

Our final meeting was with Greg, an elder at Trinity Baptist Church in New Haven, and a representative of a Christian campus organization at Yale. He shared the story of his church, which meets in the downtown area and has a congregation of 200, and gave some good insight into the best areas to consider planting a church in the future. We were blessed to pray with him for the town and for God's direction as we seek His will for that or another area with UBC. 

Tomorrow will begin early with a breakfast meeting, and will be another full day. Pray that our team can rest well again and that we can all remain healthy for the duration of the trip. Brant will be joining us tomorrow evening, so pray also for his safe travel as he drives up from the New Jersey area.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the New Haven area today, but I was able to get the pictures from previous days to post correctly, so go back and check those out!

Today's only picture...and the view from our hotel window

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part III

The outline for today's update is easy: University, Rain, Dunkin' Donuts, Scary Man, Snow, Lunch Meeting, University, Snow, Rain, Snow, Rain, Meeting, Dinner, Dessert, COLD!

Plotting out the day's plans

1. We began the morning at Johnson & Wales University, one of the top culinary schools in the country (though not only a culinary school). This is the school that Grace Harbor Church has the most relationship with, and where one of their elders serves as college ministry director. We were hoping to get to talk with several students and faculty members there, but the school is locked down pretty tight, so that wasn't really an option. The college students on our team were able to make a couple of brief connections, though, and we're grateful for that.

Johnson & Wales Campus

2. Since we couldn't get on campus and because it had started raining, Ryan and I walked over to a corner Dunkin' Donuts (there's really almost one on every corner) to get warm drinks and to spark up conversation with another customer or two. There, we met Ming, an architecture student from Taiwan. We spoke to Ming for quite a while, and quickly learned that he didn't know much about Christianity at all. Ryan brought the conversation to the Gospel, but Ming didn't seem to want to delve any further into that discussion. Please pray for this young man, who plans to return to his home country when he graduates in 2-3 years.

3. Homelessness is a huge need in this city, and that was apparent to us as we walked around downtown. In fact, right before we walked into the donut shop, a man asked us for money. We didn't give him any, and he proceeded to follow us into the donut shop and then followed us out when we left. I must admit, he scared me a bit, so we walked away quickly and tried to avoid him the rest of the morning, something I now somewhat regret. What if I was homeless? Would I want to be treated like that?

4. Before meeting up with the rest of our team again, it began to snow. It was really windy in the downcity area this morning, so the snow was blowing right at our faces. We were definitely missing the 70-degree temperatures at home!

Brown University Bears

5. For lunch, we met with Ted, who pastors another church, Downcity Church, in...well, downcity. He's a single guy living in the city, who is extremely passionate about reaching these people for Christ. He's been there for four years now and leads a congregation of about 40 members. As did our meetings yesterday, this provided yet another great time of conversation and learning about church planting. One of the key things I took from our meeting personally was that in the life of a beginning church planter, he is the go-to-guy for anyone with any issues, questions, concerns, etc. Until the church has grown enough to install deacons and elders, the church planter must be prepared to focus a lot of time and effort on the congregation.

Brown University Main Green

6. Parking is not a good option in this city, so you try to find a good spot at the beginning of the day and then walk mostly everywhere you go. From lunch, we walked (in the snow) to Brown University, about two miles or so up from the downcity area. We spent the rest of the afternoon meeting with students and staff members, surveying them for the spiritual needs of the campus and community. We found a great need for an international student ministry, as people from all of the world come to this school, but many have a hard time getting plugged in. While this campus does have a small presence from a local evangelical church, there is still much that could be done to reach these students.

7. Snow, rain, snow, rain...you know the drill.

Downcity Providence

8. We met in the campus bookstore with Tyler, who is a leading member of one of the Christian organizations on campus. He shared with us a lot about the student body, and provided a good perspective that we hadn't yet received. Tyler explained that Brown University is a constant promoter of tolerance and non-judgmental relationships, which he said allows you to present your faith on campus, although they may just be tolerant of your ideas and may not necessarily be receptive.

9. We ended the evening with a good team debrief dinner and dessert. Providence seems to have a thing with huge desserts. For those who might come to the area in the future, I recommend ordering one serving and requesting several spoons.

The First Baptist Church in America
(founded by Roger Williams)

10. Pray for us tonight as we warm up and rest. We'll be heading out early in the morning for New Haven, Connecticut. The weather looks to be better tomorrow, which we are looking forward to. We have two different meetings scheduled with campus ministry/church directors, so pray that those meetings are informative and fruitful. Thanks!

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part II

The capitol building in Providence
(seen by all four angles tonight, thanks to our GPS!)

It's been a very busy day for our team today in Providence, Rhode Island. Before I give you details on that, though, I want to write about our meeting last night with a church planter.

We met Rafael H. at a local "hot-spot" restaurant in Providence last night. I think we were all a bit nervous about our first official meeting with a local church-planter, but we quickly figured out who would lead the conversation and how to engage with each other. It couldn't have been a better meeting to begin the week with. Rafael has been a church planter for more than 30 years, and has been in this area for just about as long. As a result, he had a wealth of information to give us about church-planting in Rhode Island and Connecticut. One of the first bits of info he gave us was the following:

1.6 percent of New England is evangelical. The IMB classifies anything less than 2 percent evangelized as an unreached people group.

This statistic came up again today and has really impacted us as a team. If you consider these populations to be unreached people groups, it really means that a church planter has to be considered a missionary. More on that a few words later . . .

It seemed that with any area or city that we asked Rafael about, he would answer, "Yes, that would be a very good place to plant a church. Mmhmm." There are so few churches - Biblical churches - in these cities, and the need is great.

Our study at Grace Harbor on Wisdom v. Folly
in Proverbs 9

That information was only confirmed today, as we experienced our first full day in the city. We attended worship services at Grace Harbor Baptist Church, pastored by Kevin McCay. We so enjoyed our time there with a group of about 70 brothers and sisters in Christ. Kevin and one of the church elders, Travis, shared with us that this church plant is considered the "success story" of Providence. They've been a church plant for about seven years, but it has only really taken off within the last two (which is when Kevin & Travis arrived). They meet in a board room of a downtown (or "downcity," as they call it) hotel, but the unusual atmosphere did nothing to dampen their joy in meeting to worship the Lord. Many of the members were eager to welcome us to their congregation, and shared with us their appreciation of the familial and community feel of the church. Their love for each other and for the city was very evident. We saw a special aspect of this congregation, when later in the day we were at a local coffee shop, and saw a church member sharing the Gospel with his homosexual boss, who has recently become open to hearing about the Lord. God is doing a great work in and through these people, and we were blessed to be a part of it this morning.

Downcity Providence
(and the Ghostbusters building, I hear?)

The craziest thing that happened today was by far one of those "small world" moments. As we were preparing for the beginning of services, another Spring Break college group walked in, and they happened to be from Union University in Tennessee, which is where Ryan graduated college. Leading that team was a couple that he was great friends with during school, and it was a neat treat for them to see each other three years later in Providence of all places!

After the service, we had lunch downtown with Kevin and Travis, who shared more about their work and answered many of our questions about church-planting in the area. They restated many of the things we heard from Rafael, but also provided new insights, such as information about specific campuses, other churches in the area,etc. They were the ones to really bring out the idea of sending a missionary rather than a church planter, and shared with us what that means for the church back home.

"Church planting is a marathon; not a sprint. The church needs to look their man in the eyes and say, 'You're our guy. We're completely behind you and trust you to do the job well. We're committed to you and to the city for the long haul. It will probably take 7-10 years, but we're in it for that long. Unless you come and tell us that the Lord is moving you or the church plant elsewhere, we're there."

That really stood out to our team tonight, especially as we studied together in 2 Corinthians 4. "Therefore, we do not lose heart." Church planting is not an easy task, especially in the northeast, but it needs to be done. Wherever the Lord leads us, we as a church body at UBC will have to make this much more than a passing interest, but a long-time committed endeavor.

Our home at Providence College?

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city, specially Providence College, where we were able to interview several different individuals for our community survey. We're excited to begin gathering a lot of information, and enjoy debriefing on each of those conversations together at the end of every day.

Providence College - Catholic Chapel

Please continue to pray for us. Travel in these cities is hard on our own with only a cantankerous GPS to get us around. Pray that the forecasted light snow for tomorrow would remain light. Pray that we would find the right areas to survey tomorrow (our last full day in Providence) and that God would lead us to the right people to talk to. Pray that each member of our team would understand and embrace our specific roles, and that we would work well together as we go. Pray that God would begin to give us clear discernment as to where He might lead us to plant a church, and that we would be prepared to communicate that effectively to those at UBC. Once again, pray for the unreached people groups of Providence, New Haven and Hartford!

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part I

Our bulging suitcases

Almost a year ago, Ryan began developing a prospectus for church planting at UBC. What began as an idea written down on paper has now grown into an adventure for Ryan, myself and four others in the northeastern United States. During Spring Break, we will be spending time in Providence, Rhode Island, and Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut. During our eight days in those towns, we will meet with local church planters, pastors and campus leaders to get a scope for the current evangelical presence in these specific areas. We will also spend time walking the streets, driving the neighborhoods and hopefully sparking conversations with local members of the community, with a desire that what we see and hear will give a clear picture of the spiritual needs of focused areas of these three cities. Our prayer is that God will use that information to help us clearly identify whether He would have UBC plant a church in the near future in one of these areas. 

Five of the six members of our team drove to Tulsa yesterday. Brant, our sixth member, will be joining us on Wednesday - an event Ryan is ready for considering right now he is the only male representative on the team! We had a 6:00am flight out of Tulsa this morning, and were blessed with the hospitality of Trey & Kristen Richardson and her parents, who provided us with a home for the night near the airport. The alarm clock woke us up at 3:45am, which was WAY too early, but it was nice to arrive in Rhode Island early in the day. After getting on the plane headed to Detroit, it took me about 45 minutes to get adjusted to the idea of being 20,000 feet in the air (this happens EVERY time I get on a plane), but thankfully our flights were smooth and the weather was great, with the exception of 32-degree temperatures on the breezeway in Detroit. 

Speaking of weather, pray that it's favorable for us this week as we drive from city to city. There's a chance of slight snow on two or three of the days, and we would hate for that to interfere with any of our meetings or time in the city. If it does snow, though, Ryan and I are prepared. We were the only ones to bring a carry-on bag AND a checked bag, probably because we brought so many sweaters, heavy coats and scarves. :-)

Mission Trip Multi-Tasking 

After finally getting our fancy rental Yukon (we're high-rolling it this week!), we made it to our hotel, which is actually in Massachusetts. The hotel itself is not so high-rolling, but it fit the budget and is quite comfortable when you're living off of four hours of sleep. We made it just in time to watch the last part of the first half of Kentucky's basketball game, and then found lunch in time to see the end of the second half. We're now checking up on our brackets to find out who to cheer for in the rest of the games this afternoon. 

Our first church-planter meeting is tonight, so we're all getting rested up for that before dinner. We're all excited to get into the "meat" of the week and to see how God works in our team, in our individual lives and in the future of our church. He is definitely at work in each of these three cities, and it is our desire to see what part He might have us play in that as He continues to bring glory to Himself through these people and in these places. 

Please pray to that end with us this week - pray for protection as we travel; pray for the Gospel to be evident in our words, our actions and on our faces; pray for unity and fellowship within our team; pray for us to ask the right questions of those that we meet; pray for divine appointments; pray for clear vision and direction; pray for Hartford, Providence and New Haven!

As a complete side note, here are a couple of observations about the Northeast (and/or areas between there and Fayetteville):

- Lake Erie is much bigger than the lakes around Fayetteville.
- Traffic is way too congested. Going for a "short drive down this road" is not an option.
- It's still exciting to see a Walmart, even when you've lived next to one your whole life.
- There is an Indian Pow Wow happening in the conference room of our hotel. The Blue Cloud Moon Tribe is fun to watch.
- The Providence airport REALLY likes the moving sidewalks. Twenty minutes of them just to get a rental car.